I get asked about pricing all the time, and I get why. You see one artist charging 200 an hour, another one’s at 300, another one’s at 500, and then you find some guy doing it for 80 bucks an hour and you start wondering what’s going on. Is the expensive guy ripping people off? Is the cheap guy just starting out? Sometimes yeah, skill level plays into it. But that’s not the whole picture, and after 32 years behind the machine I can tell you the hourly rate by itself doesn’t actually tell you much.

Here’s the thing nobody talks about: it’s not just what you’re paying per hour, it’s how long it takes to get the work done. If somebody’s charging you 100 bucks an hour because that sounds like a deal, and it takes them eight hours to finish what should’ve taken four, you just paid 800 dollars for a tattoo that a 200-an-hour artist could’ve knocked out for the same price in half the time. Same money, less time in the chair, less time healing, and a lot of times a cleaner result. So which one actually saved you money?

Slow and cheap isn’t automatically a deal

I see this all the time. Somebody picks the cheaper hourly rate thinking they’re being smart with their money, and then the session runs long, or it turns into two sessions, or there’s extra touch ups down the road that weren’t part of the plan. By the time it’s all said and done they spent just as much, sometimes more, and they waited longer to get there. That’s not a bargain, that’s just a longer appointment.

And it goes the other way too. There are plenty of expensive artists out there who are just slow. Charging top dollar doesn’t automatically mean efficient, and it doesn’t automatically mean better. You can absolutely overpay for speed you’re not getting.

What actually matters when you’re choosing

If you’ve done your homework, you found an artist whose work you love, whose rate feels fair to you, and you’re comfortable with how they work, that’s it, you found your spot. Congratulations, seriously. That’s the whole goal. Some folks want to pay more and get it done fast. Some folks don’t mind a longer session if the price per hour is lower and they trust the artist. Neither one is wrong. What matters is that you’re getting your money’s worth for what you’re actually getting, not just chasing the smallest number on the price list.

When people ask me about rates, I try to walk them through this stuff instead of just throwing a number at them, because the number alone doesn’t mean anything without knowing how long the work is gonna take and what you’re gonna end up with when it’s done. That’s true whether you’re getting a small piece or something bigger, and it’s true whether you’re brand new to this or you’ve got sleeves already and you’re just trying to figure out if you’re being treated fairly.

If you’re weighing this stuff out and want to talk it through before you commit to anything, come sit down with us. We do this for a living, we’ve seen every version of pricing and timing you can imagine, and we’re happy to give you a straight answer instead of a sales pitch. Feel free to reach out through the website and we’ll figure out what makes sense for you.

Chad